WADA chief says cycle-sport is in denial over drugs

Of the latest drugs scandals, Dick Pound, the outspoken president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said "You would think that cycling would say: 'this is bad for our sport. There are constant revelations of systematic doping among teams. We've got to clean it up'. But instead their approach has been: 'we do more testing than anyone else so why are you picking on us'?"

Pound made his comments to cable channel Eurosport, currently airing coverage of the Giro d'Italia.

"The problem with cycling is that they [the UCI] know that at least one part of the sport, the professional road racing circuit, has a serious problem," Pound told Eurosportnews.

"And it's that part of the sport that produces most of the revenues that keep the UCI going."

Eurosportnews cited the systematic doping claims involving the Cofidis and Kelme teams as damaging a sport that is "gradually losing credibility."

Pound said: "The fact of the matter is that no matter how much testing [the UCI is] doing, they haven't made progress in stamping out doping from cycling. There is no indication whatsoever that there is less doping than in the past."

Lance Armstrong recently rounded on Pound, claiming the WADA president was pickong on cycling unfairly.

Pound refutes this claim:

"I am in the face of every other sport just as much as cycling. But the problem with cycling is that there is this clinical denial of a serious problem."